Everything you need to know about Chippendale furniture Everything you need to know about Chippendale furniture 1 comment Chippendale is a style of furniture that became popular towards the end of the 18th century, designed by English cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale – after whom the style is named. Chippendale furniture is as popular as ever today, helping people create a period elegance in their homes. If you want to learn more about the popular style of furniture and its origins, read on. Who was Thomas Chippendale? Thomas Chippendale was born in the early 1700s but little more is known of his early life until he married in 1748. A few years later, he moved to the edge of Covent Garden and set up home, as well as establishing workshops where he made furniture. In 1754, Chippendale published a collection of furniture designs called Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, which was enormously well-received by the public at the time. He was elected to the Society of Arts in 1759 and partnered with upholsterer James Rannie for a number of years until Rannie’s death, when Chippendale recruited his clerk Thomas Haig.

Chippendale married again in 1777 after the death of his first wife in 1772, and died in 1779 from tuberculosis. Styles of Chippendale furniture The Chippendale style is often described as being an anglicised type of Rococo, and Rococo is one of the styles Chippendale encompasses, along with Gothic and Chinese. Rococo Chippendale furniture often displays French influence, with chairs based on Louis XV designs, although usually less ostentatious. The ribbonback chair with a broad seat and cupid’s bow-style back rail is perhaps the most famous Chippendale design. Gothic Chippendale furniture is characterised by s-shaped curves and pointed arches in the backs of chairs, while Gothic bookcases were triangular at the top and had wooden glazing bars to hold the glass in place. Chinese Chippendale creations often included cabinets and shelves for china, and typically features pagoda-style pediments and glazing bars arranged in a fretwork design. This fretwork was also used on the edges of tea tables and on the backs and legs of chairs, often coated with lacquer.

Modern Chippendale furniture Chippendale furniture continues to be popular in modern times as the furnishings are not only attractive and help to create an upmarket, classic feel in the home, they are also hardwearing and long-lasting. While original furniture from the 1700s is hard to come by – especially in a well-preserved form, you can invest in replica pieces made from solid mahogany that is virtually undetectable as a modern equivalent. Mahogany is a reddish-brown hardwood that is extremely durable and ideal for carving. It resists wood rot and can be transformed into items of furniture that, with little maintenance, will last for years. You’ll find bedside tables, writing desks and dressing tables among the Chippendale furniture available, and simply need to wipe the furnishings down with a damp cloth to remove dust that has settled. To keep your mahogany Chippendale furniture in good condition, avoid placing it near to sunlight, as this can cause the wood’s colour to fade. Similarly, furnishings should not stand near to radiators or fireplaces. Avoid placing hot dishes directly on your Chippendale furniture, and use coasters lined underneath with felt, as other materials may scratch or damage the wood.

You can also add extra shine to your furniture by giving it a regular polish when the pieces are beginning to look a little dull. Chippendale | furniture | Britannica.com Chippendale Shaker furniture Chippendale, various styles of furniture fashionable in the third quarter of the 18th century and named after the English cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale . The first style of furniture in England named after a cabinetmaker rather than a monarch, it became the most famous name in the history of English furniture at a time when such craftsmanship was at its zenith. Mahogany ribbonback chairs in the Rococo style, designed by Thomas Chippendale, 18th century © Christie’s Images The descriptive term Chippendale is derived from a book of furniture designs, the first of its kind, that was published in 1754 in London and called The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director . The identity of the designers of the patterns in The Director is debatable in some instances, but Thomas Chippendale was clearly responsible for many of the best designs himself. The book was enthusiastically received, and furniture based on Chippendale’s designs was crafted in England, on the European continent, and in the American Colonies.

Chippendale designs fall into three main styles: Gothic, Rococo (called modern in the pattern book), and Chinese. Chippendale blended these disparate stylistic elements into harmonious and unified designs. The term Chippendale specifically refers to English furniture of the 1750s and ’60s made in a modified Rococo style. Gothic Chippendale incorporated pointed arches and ogee (S-shaped) curves into the backs of chairs and, more successfully, in the glazing bars (wooden tracery holding the glass) and pediments of massive bookcases. Rococo Chippendale was to some extent a reaction against the heavy formality of Baroque furniture design, typified by the work of William Kent who died in 1748. Many of the Rococo designs were French in origin, but Chippendale modified some of them for the less flamboyant English market; among these are his French chairs , based on Louis XV designs. Probably the best-known Chippendale design is a broad-seated ribbonback chair, with a back rail in the form of a cupid’s bow, and the pierced splat (centre support in the back) composed of carved interlacing ribbons.

The most elaborate Rococo designs, carved and gilded, were those for mirror frames, girandoles, and console tables. Similar Topics Thomas Chippendale Style Furniture and Decor - Home Decor Home Decor > 18th Century Furniture > Thomas Chippendale Style Furniture and Decor Thomas Chippendale Style Furniture and Decor The Opulent Rococo-Style Furniture and Decor of Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director The Rococo Furniture of Thomas Chippendale A gilded, carved Thomas Chippendale mirror, a perfect example of the level of detail his pieces exhibited. Thomas Chippendale’s groundbreaking Rococo-style pierced mahogany side chair. A classic Chippendale upholstered sofa, with straight legs and rails, and gently curving arms. It’s a household name today: Thomas Chippendale . Known primarily for his iconic chairs —especially the mahogany dining chairs in the Chinese, Gothic and Rococo “ribband-back” styles—Chippendale ran a shop of skilled artisans in London and famously published The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, a complete catalog of every type of furniture.

Although not the only top-notch designer in London at the time, Thomas Chippendale managed to achieve immortality—and have most of Mid-Georgian furniture attributed to his style—by being the first to publish a book of this magnitude. Shop the iconic style of Thomas Chippendale at One Kings Lane. The book included plates of designs for: • four-poster carved and fabric-covered beds • consoles and tables • chairs , daybeds, sofas and upholstered settees • chair-back settees • commodes • sconces His mastery of “Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste”—modern being his version of Rococo—was spread via his widely published pattern book, The Director. The book was filled with hundreds of ‘plates’ explaining the style and construction of various types of furniture, from mantels and bookcases to armchairs and his iconic camelback sofas. His fretwork is perhaps the most noticeable aspect of Chippendale designs—and the most copied today.

Noting that books published on the subject of travel to China had increased interest in the Eastern style, and the popularity of Horace Walpole’s ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic,’ Chippendale fluidly incorporated both of these styles into his interpretation of Rococo—and the results were adored. Illustration of a classic Chippendale kneehole desk, with a detail of the batwing-style brass mounts. Note the lion’s paw feet and decorative aprons. Entire books have been written studying the Chippendale library of design, but it is perhaps his dining chairs that are the most famous, and show the greatest breadth of his work. Read more about Thomas Chippendale’s famous dining chairs.

Chippendale furniture is characterized by: • elaborate batwing brass mounts and hardware • dining chairs that immediately dropped the curve of the Queen Anne chair, with outward-flaring straight uprights and a separate, horizontal yoke top rail • his straight and tapered style legs, known as a Marlborough leg style leg (front legs only; the back two legs are almost always straight) • club feet, with a pad or base, or guttae feet (an ancient Roman ornament) • cane seats and ‘japanning’ Chippendale also made “French-style” upholstered armchairs, or fauteuils, a chair that never went out of style throughout the Georgian period, and was often heavily carved and gilded. Similarly, his daybeds were like long extensions of these seats. Chippendale Style in America (1750-1785) A modern, Chippendale-style camelback settee typical of the Federal Period in America. Thomas Chippendale’s book was a chief source of information for American chair-makers. Rather than having to rely on importing chairs to understand the style, The Director gave them unparalleled instruction, and revved up American craftsmanship.

American Chippendale chairs have wonderful proportion and lines, often use less carved ornament, and are clearly distinct from English Chippendale chairs. Regional distinctions showed through as well, as in American Queen Anne chairs , right down to which town or shop created which chair. Still, little is known of southern Chippendale designs, but Charleston was credited with a version that was unique, with gilded accents. Although Chippendale doesn’t make much reference to wood in his book, it’s clear through the intricate carving that mahogany was preferred. Mahogany wasn’t new in America, but its popular use with American Chippendale chairs nudged walnut out of the spotlight. In 1765, Mrs. Benjamin Franklin alluded to this trend, writing that she had moved her “old black walnut chairs” to a lesser-used bedroom. There was also only one instance of a claw-and-ball foot in The Director, but in America, it was a popular motif. Rare, transitional chairs were created in the colonies, including interesting examples of side chairs with Chippendale-style top rails, but Queen Anne-style splats, or, conversely, cabriole legs and a curved back rail, but a splat with a pierced Chippendale design.

Often, this mix of styles can be credited to the commissioner’s particular tastes, and showed that colonial craftsmen felt free to vary any aspects they wanted. Another American innovation was a Chippendale-style ladder-back chair—nothing seen in The Director, of course—that was used personally by a signer of the Declaration of Independence in his Maryland home. Gothic touches—a Chippendale sub-style—were also interpreted in America, and seen on the Speaker’s chair at Independence Hall. And Benjamin Franklin invented a Chippendale-style upholstered armchair with a seat that flipped down, transforming the chair into a ladder, to reach books in his library. Chippendale remained popular in America into the 1790s. The style survived both the American Revolution and the eventual political break with England, proving that its popularity outweighed its associations with English tastes. Chippendale--The Royalty of Antique Furniture The Early Years But in 1754, Mr. Chippendale, as he was known in London, published his detailed collection, Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, a portfolio of fashionable English furniture design templates and one of the first furniture design books.

In it Chippendale adapted existing design styles to the fashion of the mid-18th century. Both makers and sellers of furniture rushed to purchase it, making Chippendale a household name. And so pervasive was the influence of his book that the name of Chippendale is often indiscriminately applied to all mid-18th century furniture. Chippendale created his Director as a catalogue from which his wealthy patrons could choose particular elements for their furniture, which would then be custom made for them in his workshop. It contained 161 plates, reflecting many elements of the Rococo, Chinese, Gothic and Neoclassical styles. Publication of the Director clearly had a stimulating effect on Chippendaleï¿½s career since all his known commissions date from after its publication. However, the Chippendale style didnï¿½t remain within the confines of the Chippendale workshops very long. So popular were the designs with the wealthy class that soon other furniture makers were using Gentleman and Cabinet-Makerï¿½s Director as a pattern book for their shops, too. In 1754, the same year as the publication of his Director, Chippendale moved to spacious premises in the fashionable paved thoroughfare of St.

Martinï¿½s Lane which his firm occupied for the next 60 years. He then formed a partnership with James Rannie, a Scottish merchant, who injected capital into the business. They employed between 40 and 50 artisans. And while the notes in his Director showed Chippendale possessed a sound practical knowledge of timbers and craftsmanship, he most likely, at this stage in his career, would have been responsible for design and management, instead of working at the bench. A versatile man, he was willing to design and supply wallpapers, carpets, fire grates, decorative ormolu, chimney pieces, even complete room schemes, in addition to furniture. As well as equipping State Apartments with luxurious ensembles, his firm regularly supplied routine articles for the servantsï¿½ rooms and domestic offices. He offered a complete house furnishing service, undertook repairs, removals, hired out furniture, compiled inventories and was even prepared to direct and furnish funerals for respected customers. Fine Woods Make the Difference Chippendale style furniture was generally made of mahogany, imported from the West Indies. Though cabinetmakers occasionally used veneers, theyï¿½re not typical of this style.

Instead they preferred using solid wood to accommodate the elaborate carving found in this style. And they upholstered the newly introduced camel-back sofas in rich brocades, velvets, and damasks. While cabinetmakers used Cuban, Dominican and Honduran mahogany during the latter part of the 18th Century, the finest was Cuban, a dense, heavy wood with a close grain. When they carved it, minute white flecks would appear in the wood. Honduran mahogany is lighter in weight and color. The mahoganies from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica fell somewhere between Cuban and Honduran in quality. Flame mahogany refers to the character of the grain, obtained by using the first branch or crotch of the tree. Another much sought-after grain was mottled, often referred to as "plum pudding" mahogany. Nevertheless, in the Chippendale period in America, Connecticut cabinetmakers used cherry more often than mahogany. During the same period, furniture makers in Bermuda used local cedar which had an orangish hue. Throughout America, furniture makers used softwoods like white pine for the main carcase of furniture, but in England, they favored hardwood such as oak.

By mixing and melding the extravagant Rococo style with the Gothic and Chinese styles, Chippendale came up with a hybrid that displaced the more angular Queen Anne style. From the 1760's, the neoclassical work of architect Robert Adam, with whom he worked on several large projects, influenced him greatly. Chippendale's Signature Formï¿½The Cabriole Leg He extensively employed the Queen Anne-style cabriole leg. While there are six different basic Chippendale style legsï¿½the lionï¿½s paw, the ball and claw, the late Chippendale, the Marlborough, the club and the spadeï¿½he based three of them on the cabriole shape which is an elegant, serpentine style ending in a distinctive foot. These include the lionï¿½s paw, which ends with a lion paw shaped foot, the club, which is a simple round foot and the ball and claw, which looks like an eagle talon holding a ball.

The remaining leg styles are straightï¿½the Marlborough being a plain, square leg, the spade a tapered round leg often with a square or trapezoid foot, and the late Chippendale having a square leg with a square foot. Chippendaleï¿½s Gothic and Chinese influenced designs had straight or tapering legs, tracery carving and fret and lattice work. Block-front furnitureï¿½where the center front recedes in a shallow concave curve between slightly convex endsï¿½seems to have been unique to North America. Chippendale never illustrated furniture of this type in his Director. Furniture connoisseurs believe that this style originated the area of Boston, Massachusetts, and assumed a Chippendale character. Another characteristically American furniture form was the highboy. English cabinetmakers abandoned the chest-on-stand, of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, for the chest-on-chest where the lower section is supported on low bracket feet.

Furniture makers supported the highboy, known back then as a high chest of drawers, on high cabriole legs, the top being surmounted by a swan-neck broken pediment sometimes known in America as a "bonnet." The center of the pediment was usually embellished with a cartouche showing the familyï¿½s crest, except in American pieces this is smaller. It was customary to display these elaborately carved pieces in the drawing room, even though they were designed to hold personal belongings. The lowboy, or the lower part of the highboy, was usually elaborately embellished with carving and sometimes stood by itself. Chippendale chairs often exhibit features of Queen Anne or early Georgian furniture. Often, American Chippendale chairs had Queen Anne back-splats or kidney-shaped seats. American cabinetmakers used doweled through tenon construction, even in sophisticated furniture, up to the late 18th century. In England this feature had died out in all but country furniture by the early 18th century. Of course, there are exceptions, so that identification is dependent upon more subtle points such as the less extreme line of the American back leg as compared with the English examples which are less vertical.

However, in America, cabriole legs tended to be somewhat curlier than in England. Chinese Chippendale Another style of furnishing thatï¿½s often associated with the name of Chippendale is the so-called "Chinese Chippendale" or Chinoiserie, which remained immensely popular, especially for bedrooms, despite the rise of Neoclassicism. Japanning, or painted decoration sometimes imitating lacquer, became the last word in chic. While he based his work upon the general Queen Anne and Georgian characteristics of sober design and thoroughly fine construction, retaining many of the early 18th-century details, Chippendale introduced many other forms. Though collectors identify his name with the extensive variety of chair designsï¿½from geometrical to Chinese, lattice, or sumptuously carved and interlaced forms, his workshopï¿½s output also included desks, mirror frames, hanging bookshelves, settees, china cabinets and bookcasesï¿½featuring fretted cornices and latticework glazed doorsï¿½and tables with delicately fretted galleries and distinctive cluster-column legs of Gothic inspiration.

Noted Makers of Chippendale Furniture Records dating from before the American Revolution prove that there were many skilled craftsmen in the country. In Boston, for example, there were 150 known cabinetmakers, while Philadelphia had equally as many. In the South, craftsmen-slaves produced good work. Itï¿½s not surprising, therefore, to discover that many of the cabinetmakers who produced American Chippendale furniture werenï¿½t of British descent. George Gostelowe who worked in Philadelphia was Swedish while Andrew Gautier was a Huguenot. Some of the most remarkable makers of Chippendale furniture were Quakers, for example the Goddards and the Townsends of Newport, Rhode Island Island, and William Savery of Philadelphia, Pennyslvania. In the history of American colonial furniture, the Townsends and the Goddards are truly remarkable for the quality of their work and for the number of them of different generations who made furnitureï¿½altogether some 20 individuals from three generations of the Townsends, including Christopher and his sons John and Job and his grandsons Job junior and Edmund were well known, while of the Goddards the best known was John.

Reproductions It was the practice in the mid-18th Century to purchase a finely made piece of furniture or decorative object and then have copies made at a lower price to increase its number. These, as with modern reproductions, of the Chippendale style were often hand carved but donï¿½t have the depth and detail of carving that genuine Chippendale furniture has. Nye recommended that collectors look for evidence of craftsmanshipï¿½hand planing, hand sawing, handmade nails, as well as shrinkage in the wood. In addition, reproduction pieces will have been constructed of younger mahogany which isnï¿½t as dense and is grainier than the slow-growth wood used to make 18th-century pieces. High Prices for Quality Thomas Chippendale, whoï¿½s furniture designs today command stratospheric prices, had to, on more than one occasion, fight for payment on his commissions. Today, collectors should be wary of any piece of Chippendale furniture that doesnï¿½t have a four to six-figure price tag, especially for pieces made in Philadelphia, according to Nye.

"If itï¿½s not appropriately priced, the dealer knows that itï¿½s not 18th century," said Nye. "A reputable dealer will give a written guarantee that the piece is authentic and the guarantee will include a detailed description of the piece and its provenance. Watch out for the ï¿½too-good-to-be-trueï¿½ price." Nye also noted that while the market is strong for exceptional items, many Chippendale pieces are undocumented and unsigned, so collectors need to look at form and aesthetic attributes. "Many American cabinetmakers borrowed liberally from Chippendaleï¿½s designs, so their pieces werenï¿½t as pure as English ones," he added. The Chippendale Society, founded in England in 1963, owns an important collection of furniture and documents, usually on display at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, England.

English Furniture Maker Thomas Chippendale | Englidh Antique Furniture English Antique Furniture Maker Thomas Chippendale Home > Resources > English Antique Furniture Maker Thomas Chippendale English Antique Furniture Maker Thomas Chippendale English Antique Furniture Maker Thomas Chippendale May 26, 2013 Peter Hemerlein Probably the single most well known name in the antique furniture industry is Thomas Chippendale. His artistic furniture designs have shaped furniture making not only in England and America but throughout the world for hundreds of years. I would consider him the most influential, most well known, and most versatile of the “Big Three” English furniture designers. Personal History of Thomas Chippendale Chippendale was born in 1718 into a family already in the woodworking business. He probably learned the fundamentals from his father before training under Richard Wood an extremely talented wood worker. After this training Chippendale moved to London and worked as a journeyman cabinet maker. Chippendale had nine children with his first wife, and after she passed he remarried and had two more children with his second wife.

Thomas Chippendale’s English Furniture Work In 1754 while working as a journeyman cabinet maker in London, Thomas Chippendale published a book of his furniture designs entitled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director. He was the first cabinet maker to publish such a book which catapulted him to his success in two ways. First, the book was immediately noticed by many potential wealthy clients opening up a large pool of customers and second the book has been so enduring that the entire British Rococo style has been branded as “Chippendale”. The success of his book was so widespread that once cabinet makers began to emulate the style overseas it was called “American Chippendale”. As an actual cabinet maker Thomas did make furniture as well and a list of pieces that can be directly identified to him can be seen on his wiki page . A scan from he Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director showing some of Chippendale’s chair designs. Unlike the other large English furniture designers he is often compared to, Thomas Chippendale was not only a cabinet maker but a full interior designer. He could be commissioned to make a single piece of furniture or decorate an entire wing with furniture, art, rugs, and even paint or wallpaper.

His commissions were not limited to the wealthy as he made utilitarian pieces for casual customers and furnished servants areas of larger commissions as well. It could be argued that he and his company were the most complete interior design firm until modern times. Chippendale Style The styles and designs of Chippendale can be broken down into essentially three categories. His main style was simply the British Rococo style and is referred to only has Chippendale. This style is characterized by cabriole legs, carvings, and broken arched pediments. His chairs are distinguished with back rests that are wider at the top than at the bottom and contained either ladders or joined slats. Mahogany was Chippendale’s wood of choice, he preferred it over all others. The other two less popular Chippendale styles are called Chippendale Gothic and Chinese Chippendale. Chinese Chippendale having the wood carved to resemble bamboo as well as fretwork that gives an oriental feel and Gothic Chippendale having pointed arches and ogee curves in its fretwork and carvings.

Share English Chippendale Furniture | eBay English Chippendale Furniture Share March 9, 2009 Thomas Chippendale was an English furniture and cabinet maker working in the 1700s who's name is probaly most famously associated with Chippendale Chairs. Chippendale Chairs typically feature ball and claw feet and ornately carved backsplats with a chunky feel. Chippendale also made chests, desks, cabinets and other pieces of furniture. His enduring style was produced in workshops in both Britain and America since then. The Chippendale legacy can be seen in the intricate Gothic, Rococo and Chinese inspired chair backs assoociated with mid - 18th Century furniture. As Chippendale's designs were taking hold so the Neoclassical style emerged and was evident in the light elegant chairs of the late 18th Century. In Britain it was later interpreted by George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton. Thomas Chippendale, (1718-1779), the English furniture designer and cabinetmaker whose name has become the generic label for furniture of the 1750s and 1760s.

The son of a Yorkshire joiner, he probably served a family apprenticeship before seeking his fortune in London. He established a workshop there around 1749, later moving to spacious premises in St Martin's Lane, at the hub of the London furniture trade. His partner, James Rannie, probably financed the business. In 1754 Chippendale published The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director by subscription. This was a book of engraved designs for a wide variety of household furniture in the fashionable styles of the time, including the Rococo, Chinese, and Gothic tastes. It was reissued in 1755 and, with additions in the newly emerging Neo-Classical style, between 1759 and 1762. The Director established Chippendale's reputation as a leading cabinetmaker and ensured his lasting influence. It was the most distinguished of all the 18th-century furniture design books and the first to provide a comprehensive survey of the styles in vogue.

Chippendale's considerable business (he employed about 50 skilled craftsmen) was not without setbacks: in 1755 the cabinet shop was severely damaged by fire, and the death of Rannie in 1766 led to financial problems. Although relatively little is known of Chippendale's private life and although he never achieved the gentlemanly status of some of his contemporary cabinetmakers, his firm produced a quantity of fine furniture for noble and wealthy patrons, and this is well documented. For some he both designed and provided complete interior schemes and it is known that he furnished interiors designed by Robert Adam. Some of Chippendale's most important furniture, ranging from early Director pieces to those executed in the Neo-Classical style of the late 1760s and 1770s, can still be seen in the houses for which it was commissioned. Notable examples are Dumfries House, Ayrshire; Wilton House, Wiltshire; Aske Hall, Nostell Priory, Harewood House, Newby Hall and Burton Constable in Yorkshire; Mersham le Hatch, Kent; Paxton House, Berwickshire; and Petworth House, Sussex.

Chippendale's eldest son, also Thomas (1749-1822), continued the business and maintained its reputation as one of the leading cabinetmakers of the late 18th century. Tags: Thomas Chippendale | British cabinetmaker | Britannica.com British cabinetmaker William Savery Thomas Chippendale, (baptized June 5, 1718, Otley, Yorkshire , England —died November 1779, London ), one of the leading cabinetmakers of 18th-century England and one of the most perplexing figures in the history of furniture . His name is synonymous with the Anglicized Rococo style. Nothing is known of Chippendale’s early life until his marriage to Catherine Redshaw in London in 1748. In 1753 he moved to St. Martin’s Lane, where he maintained his showrooms, workshops, and home for the rest of his life. In 1754 he published his celebrated Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director ; this work was the most important collection of furniture designs theretofore published in England, illustrating almost every type of mid-18th-century domestic furniture.

The first and second (1755) editions contained 160 plates, the third edition (published in weekly parts, 1759–62), 200; the designs largely were Chippendale’s improvements on the fashionable furniture styles and designs of the time. Chippendale was elected to the Society of Arts in 1759 but declined reelection in the following year. Meanwhile he had become a partner with James Rannie, apparently an upholsterer, who died in 1766. Chippendale continued the business alone until he took Thomas Haig, Rannie’s former clerk, into partnership in 1771. Chippendale’s first wife died in 1772, and he married Elizabeth Davis in 1777. He died of tuberculosis . Although head of an important firm, Chippendale was not the greatest of all English furniture makers, and his exaggerated posthumous reputation is attributable largely to the Director.

A 20th-century scholarly investigation revealed him as essentially a collector and extremely talented modifier of already existing styles, notably Rococo , which is characteristically used in Chippendale’s many designs for mahogany chairs with intricately pierced slats and for elaborately carved case furniture. Other designs in the Director show the Rococo adaptations of Chinese and Gothic styles, some to be carved in softwood and gilded or japanned (an East Asian process, similar to lacquering). Though the plates in the Director are signed by Chippendale, it is now accepted that some were by other designers in the Rococo style, notably Henry Copland , who had published designs earlier, and Matthias Lock , whom Chippendale had hired to provide special designs for clients. Chippendale’s name is given indiscriminately to great quantities of mid-18th-century furniture; but, in fact, only comparatively few pieces can be assigned with certainty to his workshop. Once established as head of a large firm, he did not make furniture himself. Even pieces that resemble designs in the Director cannot be attributed to his shop without further evidence, for the designs were available to contemporary cabinetmakers, some of whose names appear in the original list of subscribers.

Where a piece corresponds to a Director plate and where the original owner was a subscriber to the Director or is known to have employed Chippendale, a tentative attribution may be made, such as the extraordinary bedroom suite at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum , London. Cabinetmakers in the American colonies borrowed heavily from the Director. Britannica Stories NOTE: There is no sound with this video Was this chair made by Thomas Chippendale? We know the design was published by Chippendale in 1754 But many different chair makers used his designs The designs were interpreted freely, even in Chippendale's own workshop So, was this chair in Chippendale's own workshop? The carving on the front is crisply cut But it lacks the liveliness we would expect from Chippendale's carvers However, other aspects of the construction are of high quality The uprights have been embellished with grooves And the curve of the back is well made Is there any other evidence to help us decide who made the chair?

This chair is part of a set of six One has a hidden inscription under the pedestal Under an infra-red light it reads ‘ 6 pedestals for Chippendels Backs’ Although this confirms the design was by Chippendale, it does not confirm the maker Only a bill could prove that the chair is from Chippendale's workshop There is no such bill A gift in your will You may not have thought of including a gift to a museum in your will, but the V&A is a charity and legacies form an important source of funding for our work. It is not just the great collectors and the wealthy who leave legacies to the V&A. Legacies of all sizes, large and small, make a real difference to what we can do and your support can help ensure that future generations enjoy the V&A as much as you have. Download: mp3 | ogg View transcript My name is Peter Holmes and I’m a furniture conservator in London. Well, every restorer, every conservator of English furniture will have taken apart a chair like this.

And these are chairs - imagine they were made in the middle of the 18th century - they would have been around many tables, many dinner parties, people very drunk, rocking back on them, many of them would have broken. But actually, the ones that do survive, most of all, are these ones with the H-shaped stretcher. For a restorer, the issues that he would tackle on such a chair would be the upholstery failing, the webbing which supports the stuffing failing, the seat rails having woodworm damage and tack damage which would weaken the structure, and then the general loosening of the joints. The joints are all glued together with Scotch glue, which is a reversible, thermo-plastic animal glue. It’s a glue made from animal bones and horns, which is melted down. But it’s the restorer’s friend because a restorer can warm the joints gently and the animal glue - from animals in the middle of the 18th century - softens and the joints slide apart. You then deal with any fractures and breaks and then you re-glue it back together again using the same glue. And hopefully it will be sound for many years to come.

In large workshops, like Chippendale’s workshop, or similar workshops around the country, these people were doing it all of their lives. I mean their skill and alacrity was extraordinary. The carving on this particular chair is actually very well done. If you look at the very fine C-scrolls on it, if you look very carefully, there’s a slight hollow in the centre of these C-scrolls that runs around the cresting rail, on the top there. Very subtle. A lot of these surfaces - straight off the carver’s chisel - when they were finished and presented to the client they would have been quite sharp actually. I mean they weren’t using sandpaper then. They had some abrasives but not as we know them today. And they might have had an oiled finish or a varnished finish. But it would have been bright red in colour, or deep red in colour, I should say. The piercing of the chair back and the carving is joyful, actually. It gives me great pleasure. Corner cupboard, Thomas Chippendale, about 1768–78. Museum no.

W.24-1917 Leela Meinertas, Curator in the Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the V&A, discusses a Thomas Chippendale corner cupboard Download: mp3 | ogg View transcript My name’s Leela Meinertas and I’m a curator in the Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the V&A. The word in itself, Chippendale, is such an emotive term. I mean people go mad about Chippendale, and in the auction rooms a real documented piece of Chippendale, where you can guarantee it’s by him, goes for millions. He had upholsterers, carvers, japanners. He had people hanging curtains. He could even supply you with a night watchman who would watch the gate. It was a one stop furnishing outfitters, if you like. Now, opposed to the standard brown wood chairs that people associate with Chippendale, if you were to see this corner cupboard, you wouldn’t immediately think it is by Chippendale. It’s a French idea, it was called encoignures. They were usually made in pairs. So you would have your commode in the middle of the wall and then these two in the corners.

Now, we know - there is so much documentation on this corner cupboard - that we know exactly who it was made for. It was made for the very famous actor-manager David Garrick for his villa in Hampton. Garrick was fantastically wealthy, for an actor, and he had Chippendale design masses of furniture. He was a very, very big client of his. And it’s in what we call the Chinoiserie style and it’s japanned, which means, basically, it’s painted. Now, in the villa in Hampton, we know that when Garrick first moved in, in the 1750s, it was already decorated in this Chinesey style with painted panels and canvases. So it looks likely that Chippendale continued this trend. And this could have been bought white and then painted on later, and there are some wonderful letters from Mrs Garrick where she complains bitterly about why she’s been charged so much for painting something that she felt she’d already paid for before. And there are then letters back to her saying, ‘Oh, but you know, we haven’t paid your bill and we’re going to get the lawyers get mentioned’. But Chippendale just happens to be the most famous name.

There were other very, very competent makers at the same time. Audio description of the Furniture Gallery's Thomas Chippendale display

Question: What was the first name of the furniture maker Chippendale?
Answer: THOMAS